Kurdistan Is Looking To Export Its Oil Through Pipelines To Turkey By Bypassing Baghdad's Hold On Oil Exports

Kurdistan Regional Government Natural Resources Minister Hawrami speaks with Turkish Energy Minister Yildiz during a joint news conference in Arbil. Kurdistan, a relatively untapped oil and gas province, is currently locked in an ongoing battle with Baghdad over the right to export its natural resources. Photo: Reuters

Genel Energy PLC (Otcmkts:Gegyf), an Anglo-Turkish exploration and production company, said that Kurdistan will complete its own oil export pipeline that would be independent from Baghdad’s central control over oil exports, provoking tensions with the central government, UPI reported Wednesday.

Genel’s CEO Tony Hayward said that there was a lot to look forward to in terms of the oil and natural gas production in the Kurdish region of Iraq, adding that the infrastructure for an independent export pipeline from the Kurdish region should be finished by the end of 2013.

Disputes have been ongoing between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG, which is the official ruling body of a federated region in northern Iraq, over sovereignty and exports of energy resources.

The current plan would be to export oil from two oil fields, Taq Taq and Tawke, through a pipeline to the Turkish border.

Production in the region fluctuates because of disputes with the central government. But an assessment by FACTS Global Energy and the Middle East Economic Survey suggests that crude oil production capacity in the KRG could reach about 400,000 barrels of oil a day by the end of 2013, according to the EIA.

KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani suggested that crude oil exports could rise to 1 million barrels of oil a day by 2015 and to 2 million barrels of oil a day by 2019, in a report by EIA.